Carrie struggled to grab his hands, but he swung her around. Her head hit the edge of the table and flung back from the impact.
She crumpled to the ground in a whimper. Sharp pain encompassed her head.
Emma screamed again.
Carrie panicked. She must get up. She felt woozy and could not move against the hurt. She shook her head but the sharp, nauseating pain kept her down on the floor. She touched the tender bump on the back of her head, surprised to find a smear of blood.
A tussle sounded from the bedroom. Loud swearing. Stifled cries.
Carrie groaned and wobbled up, gathering herself until the dizziness faded away.
Conner swept by her, out the door, and to his horse.
She stepped to the mantel to grab the rifle, but a soft noise from bedroom stopped her. Frantically, she found the flint and lit a candle, calling, “Emma?”
In the corner of the bedroom, Emma sat swaying on the floor, moaning and gripping her middle.
“Honey.” Carrie placed the candle on the floor and kneeled over her. “You’re hurt? What did he do? Oh, Lord ’a mercy!”
Emma rocked into Carrie’s arms, crying quietly. It was then that Carrie noticed her dress torn at the shoulder and a small patch of blood on the rag rug. She blinked, unable to admit Conner’s deed.
“Emma, honey. Tell me. Please. How did he hurt you?”
Emma sniffled into Carrie’s chest. “Oh, Carrie…” she cried.
“Did he take advantage of ye?”
Emma nodded and let out a howl that stabbed Carrie’s heart. She gripped Emma and rocked, tears flowing down both of their cheeks.
Horse’s hooves sounded in the yard. The door had been left open and Carrie, wild-eyed, hugged Emma fiercely to her.
Laban’s voice sounded just outside the door. “Miss Reynolds? We heard caterwauling like a fight from across the timber and rode to ye as soon as we could. Are ye well?”
Carrie caressed Emma’s hair. “I need to talk to Laban, honey.” She carefully removed Emma’s hands clinging hard to her shoulders.
“Laban, you are well met.” She choked and exhaled. “Conner…outraged Miss Reynolds.”
Laban peeked into the cabin. “Lord help us. What can I do for ye, Miss Fletcher?”
“Please get Squire Dixson.”
In Kickapoo language Laban yelled back to Red Fox, who held the horse’s reins. Without further talk, Red Fox leapt to the horse that Carrie recognized as Dixson’s—the horse that won the Independence Day race. He galloped at full speed into the moonless night. Laban did not move from the yard outside the door and Carrie saw that he meant to stay with them, for which she sighed in relief.
After some minutes, Dixson and Red Fox charged into the yard and Carrie met them at their horses.
“Miss Fletcher.” Dixson looked with a determined face at her.
Dixson asked few questions and nodded occasionally during Carrie’s halting recounting of Conner’s attack. “I’m sorry to hear this, Miss Fletcher. I do, however, need to question Miss Reynolds directly. I know it’s hard.”
“Yes, sir, I ken.” Carrie went ahead to Emma where she still lay huddled on the floor. “Honey, come sit.” Emma whimpered when Carrie touched her, but gamely stood to sit on a bench.
Dixson quietly asked her what happened.
Emma wrung her hands. She whispered, “Conner outraged me.”
“You are quite certain who it was?”
Carrie stroked Emma’s back.
“Quite,” Emma stated without a pause and looked directly into Dixson’s face, then sniffled into her kerchief.
“I may need you to swear out a warrant, officially, but I have your word on it now and will act directly to put Conner in custody. You and Miss Fletcher tell the same story and I see evidence of his actions with… I’ve no doubts about your veracity.” Dixson stood and bowed slightly. “Ladies. I’m sorry as I can be about this business. You can trust me to do the right thing.” He put his hat on and left.
Emma gripped Carrie’s hand tightly, preventing her from leading Dixson to the door.
When he left, Carrie kissed Emma’s forehead. “Let me see to the other men. I’ll be right back.”
Emma kissed Carrie’s hand, still tightly wound with hers. “Don’t be long, sweeting,” she murmured.
Carrie told Laban and Red Fox to bed down in the straw outside the paddock.
“Do you need anything else, miss? I saw your head…” Laban pointed to Carrie.
Carrie absently touched the growing bump and flinched. The dizziness had subsided but her head still pounded. “I do fine, Laban, if y’all will stay near the paddock. There’s straw and hay aplenty to bed down. And don’t leave at cock-crow afore you have broken your fast with us.”
Laban nodded. “Yes’m.”
Carrie gently led Emma to take off her torn dress. As she stood in pantaloons and shift, Carrie wrapped her in a cotton sheet and placed her on the bed.
“Sit here, honey. I’m gonna clean you up.”
Emma nodded, her face devoid of expression, her eyes dull.
Carrie brought over a bucket of warm water and soap. With great care, she took off Emma’s underthings and noted crusted blood and the purpling of bruises on Emma’s leg and around her sex. Emma’s wooden face worried her.
After wiping off the blood soothingly, she handed Emma her nightdress. “Get dressed for bed, honey.” Emma lifted her arms and let Carrie slip the nightdress over her head. Her eyes drifted far away. Carrie feared for more than the hurt to her body.
She bundled Emma into bed gently and sat on the edge of the bed cooing softly and stroking her hair.
Emma, in a silent daze, snuggled close to Carrie and finally fell into a fitful sleep.
The cock woke Carrie, still in her clothes and stiff from sleeping sitting up next to Emma. Emma slept peacefully. She crept off the bed as quietly as possible. Her mind went over the night’s events while she stoked the fire for breakfast. She did the milking and other chores and gave Laban and Red Fox some bread and cheese.
When she returned, she wasn’t surprised to see that Emma still slept.
During Carrie’s breakfast, Laura and James arrived on Napoleon, and Laban and Red Fox went on their way.
Laura came in, not waiting for James to tend to Napoleon. “Word spread this morn when Blanton came down of what Conner done here. Are ye hurt?” Laura touched the back of Carrie’s head.
Carrie remembered then that she’d been bleeding last night and hadn’t noticed her pounding head. “Just a bump on the noggin.”
Laura fussed over her with a small bowl of water and a cloth and cleaned Carrie’s wound. “How did this happen? I see Emma’s abed. Is she hurt?”
“Conner threw me against the table and I hit my head. I was woozy and couldn’t tend to Emma. I heard scuffling and Emma’s cries like a hand over her mouth. Then Conner ran out the door. Emma laid in the corner in a heap. She wouldn’t say much last night and is still sleeping. I cleaned up some bleeding. She’ll have bruises. I reckon her heart is hurt more than her body.”
James clomped into the cabin. “I’m going up to Dixson’s to make the case for Emma, since I am near as she has to a male protector.”
Carrie took in his words but was slow to respond. “Wait, James, I want to go with you.”
Laura said to Carrie, as she ran out of the cabin, “What’re you doing? This is men’s business. Carrie, come back.”
Carrie already had Maisey in hand to saddle her. She called from the yard, “Look after Emma.”
In minutes, she and James were on their way to Dixson’s.
At Dixson’s, Conner had been shackled in a shed.
James and Dixson walked away to the shed. “It ain’t no place for a woman. You stay in the cabin,” James directed Carrie.
She clenched her fists, wanting nothing more than to give Conner what for, but obeyed James.
Susannah made tea and coaxed her to sit until the men returned, which Carrie
reluctantly did.
“What will happen to Conner?”
“I never saw Caleb so worked up about a man. The circuit judge out of Springfield comes rarely. Caleb wants to convey Conner to the constable in Springfield for incarceration and conviction.”
Dixson called Carrie out to the yard.
“Miss Fletcher, your brother has vouched for Miss Reynolds as a chaste woman and he tells me she set up the hue and cry that caught Laban’s attention from the timber. Unfortunately, as a man of color, he can’t testify on Miss Reynolds’s behalf. But the prior threats Conner made publicly against you both, the damage he did to you, Miss Fletcher, and the blood evidence, all conspire against him. I have, in the strongest terms, advised him to give himself up and plead his guilt before the judge.” Dixson cleared his throat and turned the hat in his hand. “I…Conner claims it was Laban who…Not himself. But your wounds at Conner’s hands and Miss Reynolds’s direct testimony tell the story aright, in my judgement. It is public knowledge that he threatened to harm you both. No one I know here in Locust Hill will speak for his character. You haven’t a thing to worry about, I assure you.”
James added, “The punishment includes pillorying and public flogging. Illinois has no real jail like we had in Kentucky, so he’ll be kept chained at the constable’s in Springfield until the judge can bring him to trial.”
Carrie took all this in. “When?”
“James and I will transfer Conner in chains to Springfield on the morrow.”
“James will speak on our behalf?”
“Aye, he will. He’s the man of your household. Since Miss Reynolds has no protector, by extension, he will stand as head of her household, what with you residing with her.”
Carrie looked to James, who nodded.
When they got back to Emma’s, James checked in with Laura.
“She is abed yet. I don’t want to wake her. Emma and Carrie need me, husband, so I’m staying the night.”
“I don’t want y’all women here alone. I’ll work out with Laban, Red Fox, and Blanton to stand guard.”
“Are we still in danger?” Carrie’s heart beat against her chest.
“We’ll be here until me and Dixson deliver Conner safely to Springfield.”
During midday dinner, Emma called for Carrie in a weak voice.
Carrie approached her bed. “My honey pie.” She grasped her gently. “How do ye fare?”
“Laura tells me that Dixson has Conner in chains,” Emma said with a tremor in her voice.
“Aye, they convey him to the local constable’s in Springfield on the morrow and we are safe. Don’t fret yourself, honey.”
Through the day, Carrie caressed Emma openly, heedless of Laura’s presence, and they wept together at times.
Carrie let Laura do nearly all the chores, not wanting to leave Emma’s side.
At candle-lighting, they coaxed Emma to eat a little, watching her closely. Carrie cooed Emma back to slumber and wept when she thought Emma was asleep.
Laura kept busy. When Carrie appeared from the bedroom with tears, she enwrapped her in her arms. “Honey, I’m so sorry for all this trouble. Conner…I don’t know what’s wrong with that man. He seems crazed to me.” She brushed the hair out of Carrie’s eyes as they sat in the yard.
Coyotes called across the fields. An owl hooted nearby.
Carrie sniffed. “I’m obliged to you coming to us. You helped more than you know. I’m afraid for Emma.”
“Do not fret over her, honey. She is likelier than she looks by half. She’ll bounce back, you watch.”
“I dearly hope she will.”
Midmorning on the morrow, Emma came out of the bedroom, dressed. “I’m strong,” she told Carrie. “I must get on.”
“Do not overdo, honey. You had a terrible fright. Laura and I can—”
“No. You and Laura have tended me. It will do me good to get to my chores.” She smiled wanly at her lover and Laura. “You two make me feel safe now.” She pecked them both on the cheek and put on her apron, still unsteady on her feet but determined. She would put the terrible night away from her.
Carrie and Laura constantly tutted around her all through the day while she set about her routine. She let Laura milk the goats and Millie. Carrie helped her churn butter and make goat’s cheese.
The day went on interminably and Emma was not successful in banishing the thoughts of Conner grabbing her and ripping her dress. Then atop her, hurting her, calling her “bitch.” Swearing at her, his hot, liquored breath against her neck. If Carrie saw the tears she let run down her cheeks, she didn’t let on.
Carrie went to her and gathered her in her arms. “My love. I regret I can’t take away your sorrow.”
“You are my pillar, sweeting.”
With Conner shackled in Springfield, life resumed after a fashion for Emma and Carrie. James attended a hearing and gave witness for Carrie and Emma. The constable held Conner on that basis until the circuit judge came in September.
Resolute to keep to her routine of morning and evening chores, Emma churned more butter, and delivered milk to Moose for trade and some to Mrs. Conner. Even though her husband was evil incarnate to Emma, his wife need not suffer for his ways. Her work occupied her mind. This morning she looked out over the prairie after Carrie and she hung up washing.
“What’s on your mind, honey?” Carrie sidled up behind her and wrapped her in her arms.
Emma snuggled into Carrie’s warm embrace. “Nothing.”
“What will we work on now?”
“The gardens have gone by the wayside a bit.”
“Aye. I didn’t have a moment to do that. Let’s pick ourselves some garden.”
The next day, Carrie rode to Moss Creek to see to her own medicinal garden, picked more ripening leaves and stems of her herbs and flowers, and brought them to Emma’s. Together with Emma’s herbs, they dried, pressed, mixed, and stored medicines and potions.
But as they worked, Emma continued her downhearted spirit. Not sadness exactly, but a lingering unease, as if a veil had dropped on her good nature. Her smiles and laughs came less frequently. And when she did smile, her face did not pop with the free joy Carrie was used to seeing, and it hurt her heart to see it. She tried to jolly her and keep her from doing too much, but Emma insisted she needed the diversion of work.
Carrie went out with Josh and George to find blackberries and raspberries growing wild in the timbers. They split their full buckets among Laura, Emma, and Mrs. Conner’s households.
The garden overflowed with ripe vegetables that needed picked and put by for the winter months. They harvested carrots, large onions, turnips, beets, and other vegetables and stored them in burlap bags or wooden buckets and barrels in the root cellar William had dug when Emma first arrived three years ago. They dried peaches that Moose brought from his burgeoning orchard, and looked forward to apples coming in September.
When Emma’s garden looked well picked, they both rode down to Moss Creek to help Laura with her garden. With Josh, George, Laura, Emma, and Carrie all on the job, the garden work ended in two days.
“What about Mrs. Conner?” Laura asked as she stuffed a bag with parsnips.
Carrie stopped in the middle of her own work. “You’re right. Emma and I bring over our produce, but it didn’t hit me she may need help with her own garden.”
“It ain’t much of a garden, I confess. I seen it last time I stopped by. I’d like to check up on her,” Laura said.
A grateful Mrs. Conner accepted their help with her few garden rows. They gave her several buckets of their own root vegetables. She was tending three pigs and some chickens, but as yet had no milch cow. Emma carried milk and cheese to her instead of to Laura now that Laura had Granny, her own cow who would calve in late September.
“Mrs. Conner.” Carrie braced herself to take on her main question. “Why was your husband so set against our herbs and treatments?”
Mrs. Conner stopped pulling up a carrot. “I reckon ever’bo
dy knew the story.” She straightened her back and groaned. “His first wife died after treated by a granny woman down in Kentuck. She had a bloody flux and there warn’t no doctoring in those hills and hollers. I lived but a short piece from his family, but I was a girl yet at my pa’s and we heard his wife died. Her name was Pet. A perty lady she was. Anyway, after she died, he sorely grieved and went off his noggin, some say. Afore that he had a right nice farmstead. After she died, he like to give up. His house went to wrack and ruin, his horses foundered, some of the livestock run off from starvation. He drank mighty hard. One day, he come out of it, come down to my pa’s and asked for my hand in wedlock. I was shocked two ways to Sunday. Pa looked at me, knew what they was saying about Conner, but let me go with him anyways. I was scared at first, but he acted in his right mind and we headed for here perty quick. We been having young’uns and building a new farm.” Mrs. Conner looked down at her feet. “I’m mighty sorry for what he done. He…he ain’t a mean man by nature.”
Carrie looked with sympathy on her. “Do you think he got crazed like in Kentucky after Ralph and Rowena…”
“I reckon. I never seen him like that afore, so worked up. I know he done you mischief and I’m sorry. You ladies have such kindness to come help me out even after he done what he done.”
“You can call us by our first names, Mrs. Conner. Laura, Emma, and Carrie,” Laura pointed to each of them.
“I’m Dolly.” Mrs. Conner smiled shyly.
On their way home, Laura remarked, “Mrs. Conner looks so forlorn, all alone on that ramshackle farm. Moose said one of his boys will start seeing to her every week and helping with her farming chores. Dixson is giving her two of his sheep for wool and meat.”
When they arrived at Emma’s, Laura told them, “We asked and Laban agreed to check on her. Said he would bring her some game from our place when they go out with James. That’s mighty kind of him. Even if he is a man of color, he has got a passel of neighborly feelings, I’ll give him that. James likes him and Red Fox right well; that’s enough for me.”
“They’re becoming part of the neighborhood whether some of the men like it or not.” Carrie had Conner and several others in mind. “Moose says they won’t stay the winter, though. They mean to traipse over to the Mississippi to trap this fall, then join Red Fox’s people in Missouri.”
Prairie Hearts Page 17
